Employees' rights are protected by federal labor laws and, in some cases, state laws, when it comes to discrimination, sexual harassment, and unfair labor practices. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and other statutes provide some protection for employees to speak out under certain conditions. For example, employees who are part of a union may complain through the union, and they may engage in collective bargaining boycotts, and strikes.
There are also other statutes that provide "whistle-blower" protection to an employee who reports an employer's illegal activity, refuses to disobey a law, testifies against an employer, or complains about sexual harassment.
What happens, however, when an employee has complaints about a difficult boss or coworker? Here, the employee's legal rights are much less defined. If an employee speaks out in ways that constitute insubordination or disobedience, the employer is generally within its rights to terminate the individual.
In fact, if there is no employment contract, an employer can terminate an employee for almost any cause, as long as it is not discriminatory. For a termination to be considered unlawful, the employee must be able to prove that the employer discriminated against her.
Managers will always have to deal with the problem of difficult people. It can be one of the most demanding - and trickiest - challenges a manager faces. Although each case is as individual as each personality, identifying typical patterns of difficult behavior and recognizing some of the underlying causes will help you, as manager, to address them. Always remember that your biggest concern is how to use your institutional authority to honor and protect the efforts of all your other hard-working, dedicated employees.